PIA

PIA: Group trains community on strategies to engage govt on implementation

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Amaechi Okonkwo | Port Harcourt

 

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A Pan-African community enlightenment organisation, Connected Development (CODE), has trained some community stakeholders and members of Community Development Committees (CDCs) on strategies to engage with government to ensure proper and profitable implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as it affects host community stakeholders.

The training, which was on “Citizens-led Campaign on Social Accountability and Implementation of H.C.D/PIA” was held in partnership with Oxfam, also aimed at educating community representatives on how to table their problems and challenges.

Five communities across different local government areas of Rivers State participated in the programme which was described by the Programme Manager of CODE, Zaliha Lawal as train the trainers’ workshop held recently in Port Harcourt.

Lawal further explained that: “We are working on a project funded by Oxfam where community people are being empowered to hold the government accountable.

“We understand that most of these host communities have had decade of marginalisation inasmuchas the economy we use to drive this nation is derived from them, most of them are marginalised, they do not enjoy infrastructure which is the least they can enjoy as citizens of the nation”.

“So, what we are doing is to train community members, CDC committee on how to sit with government, how to table their problems and challenges.

“We also understand that there is Petroleum Industry Act, so we are here to train the community members on how to engage government to ensure the proper implementation of PIA. For instance, we can ask for more, we can demand which is part of our duty as citizens of this nation,” she said.

Lawal, who was the lead facilitator at the workshop said: “We are training them to ensure sustainability, as Connected Development, we cannot be here forever to empower these communities on how to track capital funds, on how to do advocacy, how to engage government and organisations.

“This supposed to be in six states, get some people from the host communities and train them and what they are expected to do is to go down and train their community members.

“Our democracy is still new and not strong enough. Governments do not want to be challenged, people do not even understand that the constitution provide them with the right to ask questions, they don’t understand that their duty is also challenged and seek transparency and accountability. So, these are challenges both from the government side, lack of political will to do the right things.

“Also to the citizens that are unwilling to engage because they feel there is no going to be results.”

PIA has given host communities through the Host Communities Development Trust, some certain amount of money from companies that operate in their communities to go and develop the communities.

On his part, Charles Uffort, the State Lead Officer for Connected Development (CODE) Rivers state said, CODE was by the workshop trying to build citizens lead capacity for social accountability so they will be able to track down some abandoned projects, especially linking to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in their communities.

They are expected to be trained on how to go about the Host Community Trust, the three percent derivation that government has given to them.

Corruption has continued to thrive in Nigeria because people do not have access to information. They don’t even know what they are supposed to do. But when people have this information, it is part of their responsibility to monitor and also evaluate the government policies and programmes and projects”.

“How to utilise it, because we know there is still problem. If it is okay by them what are they going to use the 3 percent for at the end of the fiscal year of the project. That is why we were building their capacity, for them to be involved in every government projects going on in the community”, he stated.

He added; “We need to act fast. Is not all about us but the future as well. We cannot be host communities of oil producing companies and we are suffering. We are supposed to enjoy it, make out communities livable and enjoy all the social amenities that we have around us.

“That is why we are having this workshop today, to bring citizens from different communities, especially oil producing communities to come together and have a discussion of the PIA and Host Communities Development Trust Fund, are we okay with the 3 percentage federal government has allocated to us, how are we going to go about the board they said we should constitute”.

 

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